Entella

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37°46′27″N 13°07′19″E / 37.774051°N 13.121900°E / 37.774051; 13.121900 Éntella (Greek: Ἔντελλα), was an ancient city in the interior of Sicily, situated on the left bank of the river Hypsas (modern Belice), and nearly midway between the two seas, being about 40 km from the mouth of the Hypsas, and much about the same distance from the north coast of the island, at the Gulf of Castellamare. It was apparently of Sicanian origin, though the traditions concerning its foundation connected it with the Elymi and the supposed Trojan colony. According to some writers it was founded by Acestes, and named after his wife Entella, a tradition to which Silius Italicus alludes, while others ascribed its foundation to Elymus, and Virgil represents Entellus (evidently the eponymous hero of the city) as a friend and comrade of Acestes. It was, together with Erice and Segesta, among the most important centres of the Elymians. Thucydides, however, says Eryx and Egesta were the only two cities of the Elymi, and does not notice Entella at all, any more than the other places of native Sicanian or Siculian origin. The first historical mention of Entella is found in Diodorus, who tells us that in 404 BC the 1200 Campanian mercenaries, who had been in the service of the Carthaginians during the war, having been admitted into the city on friendly terms, turned their arms against the inhabitants, put all the male citizens to the sword, and made themselves masters of the place, of which they retained possession for many years. During the subsequent wars of Dionysius with the Carthaginians, the Campanian occupants of Entella sided with their former masters, and even continued faithful to their alliance in 396 BC, when all the cities of Sicily except five went over to that of Dionysius. It was not until 368 BC that the Syracusan despot was able to reduce Entella; the city appears to have still remained in the hands of the Campanians, but was now hostile to the Carthaginians, who (in 345 BC) in consequence ravaged its territory, and blockaded the city itself. Soon after we find the latter apparently in their hands, but it was recovered by Timoleon, who restored it to liberty and independence. From this time we hear little more of it.